So my wife works at a humane society/ animal clinic, which is pretty much adjacent to her dream job. If be incredibly happy for her if not for these next parts. They work with pets, adoption, spay/neuter and euthanization. A difficult job.
The thing is, they have horrible labour's practices. She is part time at 39 hours a week and makes $17cad ($2 above minimum wage) and they keep her part time (even tho she is highly skilled and better at the job then most) bc the minimum the union requires is 6 full time workers so they never go above that bc then they would get healthcare, dental, etc. She will often be forced to work over that 39 hours tho bc they are so short staffed. When this happens she will be auto logged out (illigal) and they will change her hours to keep her under 39 (illigal) and count the extra time as volunteer work. She will also bring her work home with her and they will text her all the time and one time she spent hours reorganizing their log of animals (bc it was a disaster, half the animals weren't even there anymore)
The reason for them being so short staffed (causing this) is the high turn over. For starters, it's an incredibly taxing profession, having to deal with the public, people bringing there animals to be surrender or euthanized, general crazy people, the gross mess of animal poop, blood and bugs, dealing with farel animals, big dogs, and euthanizing (and she euthanizes many animals a day, and its not pretty bc the meds they use to do it are sub par and often wont work properly. Pet owners arnt aloud in for this reason,but its cheeper then a vet). Most people in the field burn out in 3-5 years and a lot of people can't take it. On top of that, they have poor management and one of them is a big a**hole.
I'm really worried about her and I've been trying to get her to understand that what they are doing is wrong but she ignores it. They are taking advantage of the fact that all their employees love animals, got into the industry bc of that love, and using that pressure to get away with being terrible.
I've tried to get her to stick to her hours, or at least disconnect when she is at home, and honestly, it's taking a toll on our marriage bc we never get to spend any quality time together and she is always tired. I'm also worried bc she has anemia and ulcerative colitis and has been having bad flair ups again so when she isn't working she is trying to recover. On top of this job, she also volunteers at a urban wildlife center on her days off and they text/call all hours of the day bc she used to work there.
I'm not really sure what I should do, or if I can do anything. I'd report them to the Department of Labour, even anonymously, but I'm worried she could loose her job, or they all get backlash from management, or even get shut down and then all those healthy animals might be euthanized. I've mostly just been trying to keep her fed and alive. But I know where this road leads from personal experience. It leads to burn out, depression and permanent damage to the body that makes you unemployable.
Idk, I'm mostly just venting, things are rough around here, just like everywhere else. People used to say “well you're not alone in your suffering, others have it bad too”, to cheer people up, now it's like “wow, so many others are going through these bad things too, it really is hopless, isn't it”